15 bodies pulled from sea as more than 2,700 migrants saved from 23 boats in just one dramatic day in the Med
Huge rescue effort comes after 14,000 migrants were saved in five days last week
AT least 15 dead bodies were pulled from the sea as more than 2,700 migrants were saved in a series of dramatic rescue operations in the Mediterranean today.
Italy's navy and coastguard, ships patrolling on a European Union anti-smuggling mission, vessels run by humanitarian groups and a commercial tugboat aided in the rescues off the coast of Libya.
In one operation panicked migrants choked by fumes began throwing themselves into the water in a desperate bid to reach a vessel operated by Malta-based humanitarian group MOAS.
Some members of the crew also jumped into the sea in an effort to save them, and one crewman had to be rescued himself after he swallowed fuel and passing out as he was overwhelmed by migrants.
The charity successfully rescued 354 people from a dangerously overloaded rubber dinghy. But five men and two women drowned.
A Sky news reporter on board the Responder rescue ship told how the crew were radioed at 5am by the coastguard to go to the aid of 160 people in a sinking dinghy.
More than 1,000 people were rescued over the next three hours including three babies.
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MOAS Onboard Operations Officer Marco Cauchi said: "Today it was intense for the fact the rubber boats were jam-packed.
"They put as many people as they can, they put in 160 people - it was incredible.
"These boats are built to only take 100 people. It was dangerously loaded.
"People were jumping out, fumes were coming up, people were fainting, so it was horrible."
Earlier in the day the Italian navy announced it had pulled the bodies of seven migrants from the sea, with another boat recovering an eighth corpse.
Two patrol boats also "recovered nearly 500 people during six rescue operations, including one involving an inflatable boat which was only just about floating, and from which some migrants had fallen into the sea," the navy said in a statement
The day's total of more than 2,700 migrants were saved from 19 dangerously overcrowded rubber boats and four small boats, the coastguard said.
It comes after a huge wave of smuggler boat crossings saw 14,000 migrants rescued in just five days last week.
Royal Navy warship HMS Diamond is sailing to the Med to head a taskforce taking on the people traffickers.
Europe's worst migrant crisis since World War Two is now focused on Italy after the flow of refugees crossing from Turkey to Greece dried up.
Some 117,590 migrants arrived in Italy between the start of 2016 and September 1, around the same level as last year.
The route from Libya to Italy is ten times more deadly than the route into Greece, the UN refugee agency says.
In 2015 and in the first half of 2016, over 6,600 refugees or migrants drowned or went missing in the Mediterranean after their boats capsized while trying to reach Europe, according to the International Organization for Migration.
Italy is sheltering growing numbers of would-be refugees as its neighbours to the north move to tighten their borders and make it harder for migrants to travel to their preferred destinations in northern Europe.
According to interior ministry figures this month, Italy now has 148,000 asylum seekers in reception centres, compared with 103,000 in 2015 and 66,000 in 2014.